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Peabody Schools

Peabody students attend school in the Peabody-Burns Unified School District 398. Total enrollment as of 2015 is 321 for USD 398. Students can participate in a variety of activities including football, track and golf.

Peabody Lifestyle

There is simply no place like Peabody, Kansas. Nestled at the foot of the flint hills, Peabody is Rockwell’s vision come to life. From stunning late Victorian architecture in the central business district, to the immaculate public parks, Peabody has something for everyone. To put it simply… Peabody just feels like home!

Source- City of Peabody-www.peabodyks.com)

Peabody Transportation

Highway US-50 runs through the north side of town. Downtown Wichita is under 45 minutes away and Newton is under 25 minutes from Peabody.

Peabody Local Attractions/Activities

Peabody offer two restaurants, the Coneburg Grill & Pub and Pops Diner. Peabody is home to Gracepoint Church, the Baptist Church and the United Methodist Church.

Peabody Parks

The Peabody City Park is located at the west end of Second Street. The park has playground equipment, picnic areas, the municipal swimming pool, the Jr/Sr High School football field and is home to the annual Fourth of July celebration.

The City Park has an interesting history. The Peabody City Park was first owned by the Marion County Fair Association. The State Fair was held on the grounds in 1885. There was an exhibition hall built with three wings and a race track equal to none other in Kansas. The grandstand would seat 2,000 people. Dining services and food to feed 10,000 people each day were brought from Emporia by train.

Santa Fe Park is located at the South end of Walnut. The park has picnic areas and a gazebo which hosts summer concerts. The park is also home to the Doyle Valley Farmer's Market, held every Saturday from 8:00am to 12:00pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

(Source- City of Peabody-www.peabodyks.com)

Peabody –History

The Wisconsin Colony played a major role in the settlement of Peabody. In the spring of 1870, a group of men in Wisconsin, organized for the purpose of settling in Kansas. Leaders of the alliance were Colonel J. E. Cone, president, William C. Nye, secretary, and C. D. Bradley, general agent. These men, along with M.Birdsall, were the commissioners of the organization. The group planned to settle a tract six miles wide and nine miles in length along both sides of Doyle Creek, which was part of the proposed route for the Santa Fe Railroad. After arriving on the scene, the group enlarged its claim to a tract 12 by 8 miles in size. A surveyor was hired to plat the acreage and show settlers which lands were available in the region named Coneburg, in honor of the company president. The townsite extended from where the present U. S. Highway 50 is on the north end of present day Peabody to Division Street (so named when the street became the dividing line between the two early communities of Coneburg and Peabody.

The Wisconsin Colony formed the Coneburg Town Company on March 31, 1871, and the plat of the town was recorded on April 10th at the United States Land Office in Augusta, Kansas. After surveying the site, the organization soon discovered it was unable to control claim jumping or jurisdiction over the tract. The Wisconsin group quickly splintered because of infighting and a new group spun-off from part of the old.

A legal battle ensued between various segments of the area. By the Congressional Act of March 1867, probate judges were granted the authority to enter townsites but were not authorized to create such areas. On February 23, 1873, the Secretary of the Interior canceled the new Coneburg townsite. The group petitioned to have the case reopened during the winter of 1874-1875 (White 1970: Chapter One). A new hearing occurred in the summer of 1875, in Wichita. The court ruled in favor of the earlier judiciary decision made by Judge I. W. Bouse who had ruled in favor of the Coneburg Company (White 1970: Chapter One). However, this decision was overturned in September 1877 when the Secretary of the Interior affirmed the rights of the North Peabody Town Company. In 1877, the federal government ruled Probate Judge I. W. Bouse had overstepped his authority when he approved the entry of the Coneburg townsite. Bouse ordered the site surveyed, platted, apportioned to the occupants and partly deeded. The federal government saw this ruling as a violation of the law.

The community of Peabody was also created south of North Peabody. For $2,878.97 William and Annie Endicott (of Suffolk, Massachusetts) acquired title on May 6, 1870 from Amos Lawrence for the south-half of Section 4, Township 22, Range 3; the future site of Peabody. On January 12 1871, the Endicotts sold the acreage for $2,700 to Marion schoolteacher Thomas M. Potter. While construction was underway on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad line west of Emporia, the directors of the company traveled through the area on an inspection tour six days before a new townsite was filed. Businessmen rushed to the new site. With the Wisconsin Colony land in legal dispute, Potter's clear title on the south-half of section four was seen by town speculators as the most desirable location for a community. Potter's holding was platted, adjoining North Peabody at Division Street. Because of the county surveyors error in measurements, the width of Division Street (the dividing line between Peabody and part of Coneburg that became North Peabody) was 90 feet wide on the east edge of the town and fifteen feet wide on the west edge. Potter, Col Robinson, S. B. Riggs, R. K. Tabor, L. Carson and J. S. Straughen (attorney for Potter) formed the Peabody Town Company. On June 16, 1871, when the charter for incorporation was filed for the Peabody Town Company, Potter and his wife, Mary sold the land to the Peabody Town Company for $6,400. The town was named Peabody in honor of F. H. Peabody of Boston, the railroad's vice president after the directors of the line recommended the railroad be routed south of North Peabody. In 1874, Peabody visited the community named in his honor and agreed to donate the funds necessary to build a library and furnish it with furniture and a collection of books and periodicals if the residents agreed to maintain and support the bequest. The facility was the state's first free public library and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1901, the structure contained 7,000 volumes. In 1914, a new Carnegie Library Building, also on the National Register of Historic Places, was erected nearby to replace the earlier frame structure.